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Reusing commercial bottles

Elpicante

Elpicante

So I have a friend who can get me empty Cholula bottles. I would like to reuse them to make my own. unfortunately when I trying to sanitize the bottle caps the wood top separates from the plastic cap the plastic cap contains a glue residue which I do not know how to get rid of. anyone here knows where can I purchase that type of bottle cap.
 
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That still comes out to .87 cents a bottle, my main problem is that you can buy sauce at the store cheaper. I guess I will just buy a thousand woozies so I feel like I'm getting a good deal lol
 
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Maybe of I comment on here that Walmart should stock 5 oz woozy bottles enough some artificial intelligence will pick up on it and start getting them on the shelves
 
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Yeah well shipping is never really free, the bottles are gonna cost more. ;)
 
How many bottles do you need? I'll try to find a deal.
 
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Idk some website said optimal shipping was on 14 cases so I put 14 cases in my cart and it wasn't even cheaper, I could use at least 5 cases mabe more if I could justify the expense. You don't have to waste your time on me boss
 
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Walchit said:
That still comes out to .87 cents a bottle, my main problem is that you can buy sauce at the store cheaper. I guess I will just buy a thousand woozies so I feel like I'm getting a good deal lol
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What is your time worth?  
 
Even at .69 per bottle, then empty (throw away???) the sauce would make the bottle itself .69....
 
1 hour to go to the store/gas/buy the sauces(wearandtear on the car)....3 hours to empty and wash and sanitize 72 bottles...
 
dunno what your hourly wage is, but I'm going with $20/hr...for 4 hours...divided by 72 bottles plus the cost of a new cap cuz you really shouldn't reuse caps...(just sayin'...)
 
....so your .69 bottle is now $1.88 each.
 
 
 
-Or-
 
.87 per bottle......done deal...Maybe a couple pennies more since you do have to sanitize these also, but we're talking 20 minutes to dunk 'em in the sanitizing solution and stick 'em in a rack to dry. *see insider tip below
 
 
 
 
Specialty Bottle and a couple of the other companies have no minimums.  They package the cases very well, I haven't had any breakages.  
 
I believe Freund has some Free Shipping promos a couple times a year.  Several people here use Freund and may be able to shed some more light on when those promos come around.  
 
Pay for shipping or pay with your time (and waste) to empty/wash/rinse/sanitize/newcap.... what's important to you?  For me...my time is worth more than fiddling around with emptying and cleaning bottles.  I'd rather spend my time and energy experimenting and playing around with new sauces than trying to pinch a penny and worry that a bottle might not have gotten all the way clean (and believe me!  Cleaning Woozies is a PITA!).  Step on a dollar to save a dime or something like that~
 
 
 
 
 
*insider tip- I went to a junk yard and got a couple of racks from broken dishwashers to use for drying bottles.  I can stack 5-6 cases of bottles in one rack, depending on bottle size, and just let them air dry until needed.  Make sure to get racks that are in good condition with no breaks or rust spots.  The racks fit in the prep sink of our commercial kitchen for draining/drying.  For home use, just stick the rack on top of a bath towel on the counter.  The towel will absorb the drips, easy peasy. ;)
 
 
Most important, Have Fun!!!
SL
 
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just looked up 120 bottles on specialty bottle with shipping to Witcheta KS (cuz that seemed like sort of a central location) and it's coming up to .85 per bottle.
 
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I priced him similar.
 
Walchit said:
That still comes out to .87 cents a bottle, my main problem is that you can buy sauce at the store cheaper. I guess I will just buy a thousand woozies so I feel like I'm getting a good deal lol
Click to expand...
 
 
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It's a mental hurdle. It's like tyring to go into the toothpaste business and pricing empty tubes, and then finding out the dollar store has tubes cheaper with toothpaste in them... because they buy millions :shocked:. At the "for fun" level of making a few cases of sauce, I don't get it.
 
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Yea, my post got a little wordy.  People forget to value their TIME when considering these things.  And what you just posted is also why Big Boy sauces can sell for .79 a bottle and most small business sauce makers sell for $5-$7 a bottle.  When Tabasco is placing an order for 5 million bottles, they have a bit of purchasing power.  
 
 
 
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Sinn said:
How about goo gone to remove the glue from the caps? this stuff works great for removing all sort of crap off things
 
https://www.amazon.com/Goo-Gone-Surface-Adhesive-Remover/dp/B00006IBNJ
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I'm going this route, Sinn, another hiccup ran into was that Cholula stamps there glass bottles with a lot # and freshness date. This makes look cheapo to me if I'm giving these way to my friends. I think after all this research I'll just go with woozys
 

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